According to a report in The Telegraph, the BBC has asked British actor Rory Kinnear to take over the role of Doctor Who once current star Matt Smith steps down at the end of this year.

“He has been offered the part and we are waiting to hear if he will accept,” says my man in the Tardis. “He is the perfect choice.”

The 35-year-old alumnus of St Paul’s School, George Osborne’s alma mater, is the son of Roy Kinnear, the celebrated actor.

He played the MI6 officer Bill Tanner in Skyfall and Quantum of Solace, the James Bond films, and won acclaim for his stage performances in productions of Othello, Mary Stuart and Hamlet.

Dustin ranked Kinnear as the best, most realistic candidate for the role in his post last week, so this is probably good news. I don’t know. I still think it would have been nice if they tried something different this time, like, say, Gary Busey. Or DMX. Or Gary Busey and DMX, both playing the same role, tagging in and out between — hell, during — scenes without reason or explanation. That could have been fun. Sure, it would have driven the long-running series straight into the ground and led to a violent nerd riot in the streets of major metropolitan areas around the world, but hey, gotta crack a few eggs, you know?

It seems like such a boring choice, though, who knows. Bleeding Cool is calling that informant a lying liar. Of course, going through the Doctor Who tag on that site just looks like papers pulling random British Actor names out of a hat and announcing them the new Doctor: [www.bleedingcool.com]

“I actually like it when The Doctor is a relatively unknown actor, or one without one huge role that made them famous. A star, like Sir Ian, brings all the other roles they’ve ever played to the table when they act. Seeing John Hurt as the (Spoiler) at the end of the Name of the Doctor, meant that this was a certain type of part with a certain amount of gravitas, and you understood that John Hurt was bringing everything with it (including being John Hurt), just as Derek Jacobi did as the Master.

But I like to see The Doctor as The Doctor, and an actor who doesn’t bring baggage is a grand sort of thing. A star waiting to happen. So I don’t want to see Helen Mirren or Sir Ian McKellen or Chiwetel Ejiofor, or any of the famous names people are suggesting.

I want to see The Doctor. I want to be taken by surprise. I want to squint at a photo of the person online and go “but how can that be The Doctor?”. Then I want to be amazingly, delightedly, completely proven wrong, and, six episodes in, I want to wonder how I could have been so blind. Because this is the Doctor. Of course it is.”

The hard thing with Rory Kinnear is that, he’s best known in Britain for an episode of “Black Mirror,” one of the most shocking episodes of TV I’ve ever seen, in which he plays a Prime Minister that, in order to save Britain’s princess from being killed, is FORCED TO FUCK A PIG ON LIVE TELEVISION. It is INSANE. And it’s not played for laughs at all. It’s straight up bleak. Anyway, having the guy that fucked a pig play The Doctor might be a little weird.

I’m not a fan of the choice. If you read any of the books, The Doctor is supposed to get slightly younger with each regeneration. I kinda like the idea of Rupert Grint even thought he’s “a name”. He’d be younger AND a Ginger.
PS I’m really hoping Tennant’s first line to Matt Smith in the anniversary special is “Still not a ginger, I see. Good on ya!”